


A Heart to Call Home

by urdnot_wrekt



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:47:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28844826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/urdnot_wrekt/pseuds/urdnot_wrekt
Summary: The fate of the entire galaxy rests on the shoulders of Shepard and her team, and some find the burden easier to bear than others. For Shepard and Liara...the weight is best carried when it is carried together.Takes place somewhere in the middle of ME3.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Liara T'Soni
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	A Heart to Call Home

She had been staring at the screen in front of her for what felt like hours, feeling the life drain out of her a little more with each desperate, heartbreaking message that landed in her terminal. Pleas for assistance came from all over the galaxy as planet after planet fell victim to the cold, systematic destruction of the reapers. Pleas for help from the great Commander Shepard, in whom so many had placed what little hope they still clung to. Her name was a prayer on countless tongues, a last cry to the universe before yet another voice was ground into dust under the reapers’ feet. No matter how much she gave, how many lives she pulled from death’s greedy clutches, it would never be enough. There was only one of her, and she couldn’t possibly go everywhere she was needed.

With a sigh, Shepard propped her elbows up on the surface of her desk and rested her face against the open palms of her hands. Darkness cloaked her eyes, though dozens of agonizing calls for aid still seemed burned into her vision. So many people counting on her, not knowing it would only send them to their graves. Some days, she thought the weight of their souls would drag her down with them. She also thought, some days, that she would deserve it. But then a knock would come to her door, or EDI would hail her on the comms, and she would simply take a deep breath and step back into the role they all needed her to play. Like a good soldier, she would shoulder her burdens and carry on.

Across the room, a frustrated sigh drifted up to her ears. She raised her eyes to peek through the display case to where Liara sat reading a datapad under the dim glow of the room’s small worktable. Pale blue light from the aquarium danced across her back in gentle waves, every now and then rippling from the shadow of a passing fish. The sight of her there, wanting to be near Shepard even when they merely worked on opposite sides of the room in still silence, brought a weary smile to her face.

She shut down her terminal and rose to her feet, taking a second to stretch out her arms and back before stepping down into the main bedroom. As she crossed to the sofa at the worktable’s side, she laid a light kiss on the top of Liara’s head. Then she plopped herself down into the dark cushions and spread her arm across the back of the seat.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” she asked.

Liara turned to her with worried lines still etched across her forehead, the dark shadow of helplessness behind her eyes. It was a look Shepard knew all too well. She had stared at it in her own reflection every morning for weeks.

“I’ve lost communication with nearly all of the support units I sent to Thessia,” she said, her voice a wavering mixture of anger and distress. “Over half of my supply caravans never made it to the refugee camps I sent them to. My resources are being absolutely _demolished_ , and…and I don’t know what else I can do, Shepard.”

Her voice was thick, her throat scratchy, though she did not want to cry. The tender way Shepard looked at her made tears burn in her eyes, so she blinked them away and turned back to her datapad with a decisive sniffle.

“Maybe if I send the support groups with the supply caravans instead of…but if Thessia is in need of aid, I can’t just…”

Shepard reached up and gently slid the datapad out of her hands, bringing it into her own lap and shutting the screen off.

“Take a break for now,” she said, leaning forward to lay her hand overtop of Liara’s on the worktable. “Clear your head a little. Come back to it later.”

Liara shook her head and stretched her hand out for the datapad, only for Shepard to move it out of her reach.

“There’s no time, Shepard,” she implored. “Every minute I sit idle, more lives are lost. I can _help_ , if I just-”

“You _are_ helping. You are doing _everything_ you can.” Shepard turned to set the datapad beside her on the cushion, then scooted to the edge of the couch and took Liara’s hand between both of hers. “We can’t save everyone, Liara. As much as I…we _can’t_. But that doesn’t mean you tear yourself apart for it. It doesn’t mean you can’t step away from it for a little while, when it feels like this. You deserve to live, too.” She paused, rubbed her thumbs gently along the back of Liara’s hand, and sighed. “We all do.”

For a moment, Liara softened under the attentive gaze of her bondmate. She considered Shepard’s words, closed her eyes for a minute to take a deep breath. Then she looked to Shepard once again and reached her hand out for the datapad.

In the silence that stretched between them, Shepard’s eyes searched hers with such intensity it made her shiver. There was a dull sadness behind her normally sparkling green, and it made Liara’s heart ache. She moved her hand up to Shepard’s cheek and gently cradled the side of her face, watching her eyes slip closed at the touch. When they opened again, they glistened with tears, but somehow, Shepard managed to conjure a faint smile.

“If you really want the datapad back,” she said, “you’re welcome to it.”

Liara waited to see if there would be a catch, some kind of condition tacked onto the end of her statement. When none came, she stood and walked over to the couch, glancing at Shepard in confusion as she moved the few steps to where the datapad lay. She reached for it, and just before she could grab it, Shepard slid it down to the next cushion over. Her eyes lifted to Liara’s with a little of their playful glint returned.

“Very funny,” Liara said, her tone suggesting she thought the exact opposite.

She stepped toward the datapad again, and this time Shepard scooted herself over and grabbed it. But she didn’t hide it behind her back, as Liara suspected she would. Instead, she held it out in front of her, as if daring Liara to try to take it.

“I thought you told me I could have it back,” Liara said with a sigh.

“I did, and you can.”

With a raise of her eyebrows, Liara wrapped her fingers around the edge of the datapad and felt Shepard give it a slight tug, pulling her down slowly until they were so close together she could feel Shepard’s breath on her chin. She watched as Shepard worked her lower lip between her teeth, her focus roving between Liara’s eyes and mouth as if mesmerized. Without thought, Liara slid her hand overtop of Shepard’s on the datapad, the warm skin below her fingers setting her nerve endings alight.

In an instant, Shepard pulled the datapad from her grip and tossed it onto the bed several feet away, watching with a smirk at the affronted look forming on her bondmate’s face. Liara crossed her arms and frowned down at her.

“Go get it,” she huffed.

Shepard shrugged her shoulders, leaning back down against the cushions behind her.

“Sorry, love, but I’m off the clock right now,” she said. She quirked an eyebrow. “You’ll have to make me.”

She counted the heartbeats as Liara’s eyes narrowed at her, emotions flicking behind them like a feverish slideshow, before she finally grabbed the front of Shepard’s shirt and yanked her to her feet, sealing her lips in a kiss so fervid it made the fearless commander weak in the knees. A laugh slipped out of her as she gripped Liara’s hips to keep herself upright, and then she felt herself being yanked again in a different direction, this time turned around so that Liara could push her backwards toward the bed. With each blind step, she felt herself fall further and further into a world where only she and Liara existed, and they kissed, hungry and yearning, like it was their last night among the living.

The back of her knees hit the edge of the bed and Liara pushed her down onto it, climbing on top of her in a straddle and seeking Shepard’s lips again with her own. She took Shepard’s lower lip between her teeth in a playful bite that sent heat roaring through Shepard’s veins. They inched toward the center of the bed together, their bodies moving against one another in dizzying rhythm, until Liara finally grabbed for Shepard’s waistband and began to pull, causing Shepard to eagerly shimmy herself free of her sweats and undergarments. She tangled her hands in Liara’s shirt and tugged it over her head in one swift motion, next unclasping her bra and tossing it onto the floor.

Before she knew what was happening, she felt Liara’s hands sliding up underneath her shirt, skating across her ribs and settling on her chest, her thumbs lightly dancing across her nipples until they became firm. Then Liara grinned at her and ducked her head under the hem of her shirt, gliding her tongue up along Shepard’s skin until she took one nipple into her mouth, teasing and warming it with long strokes of her tongue, all torturously out of Shepard’s sight. She moved on to the next, her crest pushing against the inside of Shepard’s shirt, creating a flowing wave of movement that Shepard rested her hand on top of as she sucked in a long breath and slipped her eyes closed.

Soon, her shirt was hastily slid off and thrown to the floor, granting Liara full access to her collarbone, which she gently nipped at before making her way, slowly, excruciatingly, up Shepard’s neck, her mouth igniting sensations that she knew would leave a mark; this only made her heart pound harder, faster. As she moved, Shepard grabbed her pants by the pockets and tugged them down until they caught around her ankles, and she kicked them off onto the floor. Her eye landed on the datapad, now within arm’s reach, and she pushed that off of the bed, too, feeling Shepard smile against her as she brought their lips back together.

“Here’s that quarter-” Shepard whispered between kisses, “krogan I’ve heard so much about.”

Liara laughed, and Shepard thought she’d never find a sound more beautiful. Her bondmate, eyes sparkling, lowered her head and gently knocked it against the underside of her jaw.

“See, if you were _half_ -krogan, that might have hurt.”

She grinned, and Liara captured her mouth in another kiss. When Shepard reached for her hips and began moving her hand along the inside of Liara’s thigh, she felt a firm grip on her wrist and cerulean eyes gazing at her with the kind of fondness she had only ever dreamed of before setting foot on Therum that fateful day, what felt like lifetimes ago now.

“No,” Liara whispered, taking Shepard’s face into her hands, tucking a strand of fiery hair behind her ear. For the first time since she’d yanked Shepard to her feet and kissed control away from her, Liara softened. She smiled, and peppered light kisses across the freckles that spread from cheekbone to cheekbone along Shepard’s face. “This is for you.”

There was no chance for Shepard to protest; Liara trailed her way back down her lover’s skin, exploring it, as always, like it was both the first and last time. When she reached her thighs, she scraped along the inside with her teeth, ending with a gentle bite, and soothing it with a kiss before moving on to drag her tongue along the sensitive folds that made Shepard’s back arch off the bed, her breath hitching in her chest. She felt a hand grip the back of her crest, and reached up to thread her own fingers through the other, which grabbed hold of her so tightly it made her chuckle as she continued to taste, lick, and tease everywhere but the one place Shepard wanted her the most. She slipped her tongue inside, and felt Shepard’s hips buck toward her.

“ _Fuuuuck_ , Li,” Shepard moaned into the quiet air.

In answer, Liara slipped her fingers inside and slid up to lock her lips with Shepard’s once more, feeling the air slip out of her in desperate gasps, the hand at her crest now gripping her back like a lifeline as Liara thrust deeper, faster. She pushed Shepard closer and closer to the edge, her own pulse soaring as Shepard began to clench around her fingers.

“ _Now_ ,” Shepard pleaded, knowing Liara would understand what she asked for.

And she did. Indeed, she had been waiting. Liara reached out to Shepard, mind to mind, soul to soul, being to being, and felt every nerve thread together like a woven tapestry as they became of one existence, together. She felt her own fingers driving them both nearly wild with pleasure. She could feel Shepard barely hanging on, waiting so impatiently for her to join, so they could find their release together.

It crashed over them like a riptide, pulling them off their feet and swirling around them until they no longer knew which way was up and which was down. All they knew was wave after wave of endless euphoria, experiencing it both together and as one. Muscles contracting, toes curling, their voices calling out as one, gulping in air before the next rapturous surge sent them spinning again, always bringing them back to one another. By the time Liara ended the meld, they were both panting. Liara lay half on top of Shepard still, one hand draped across her chest and resting against the side of her neck, tracing absent circles across her skin. Shepard’s leg was between her hips, and when she moved it against her, Liara shuddered as a final shockwave left her breathless all over again.

Shepard looked down at her with a delirious smile, and this time when they kissed, it was slow, languorous. It ended with Shepard resting her lips lightly against the tip of Liara’s nose, and heaving a long, contented sigh.

“Nice break, huh?” she said, raising an eyebrow and feeling her chest warm at the delighted smile that she earned in response.

“You were right,” Liara answered with a chuckle. “Are you happy now?”

Shepard paused, propped herself up onto her elbow. She gazed down at her bondmate, joy written on her face, and a dream in her eyes, however temporary it may be. For the rest of the galaxy, Shepard was the symbol of hope so desperately needed. But, for her, hope had blue eyes and a smile that set her soul aflame.

“With you,” she whispered, “ _always_.”


End file.
